Exploring Gender Identity

Beyond Courage

by Sequoia Elisabeth on January 11, 2010

What is courage and is it necessary when confronting a transition. A transition is a change from one state, stage or condition to another, so as a person observes nature this process is constantly occurring at all levels of life. Nature does not struggle, nor does it resist. What is, is and that is OK. When viewed through human eyes however all sorts of dramas emerge as we project ourselves into the “grand scheme of things”. Are the caribou that traverse thousands of miles in the longest land migration on earth using courage to make their journey? How about the tiny hummingbird that migrates from North America to South America and back again every year, do they use courage? What about the largest living thing on earth the Sequoia tree, does it need courage to survive for up to 3 millennia?

Courage as defined by Dictionary.com is “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.” The very definition is restricted to humans! We are the Kings and Queens of fear for we seem to worship fear. We make movies about it, write books to experience it, share it with each other through our stories and teach it through our actions. It would seem that we are propagating fear in search of Courage, since courage is necessary to overcome fear. To me this seems like a vicious cycle and is ultimately unnecessary. Courage is not a trait that animals use, they simply respond to the urge to survive through stimulus/response.

Transition is usually coupled with difficulty, danger and pain so we automatically assign courage as the trait that we use to face this challenge. As conscious beings we make the choice to face transition without fear so thus we are being courageous. If we let go of our human nature and approach things with animalistic responses our survival is assured, but without the egoic self satisfaction we gain from doing it consciously.

Is courage necessary to transition, no it is not, however it is necessary to be our human selves operating from self awareness. This self awareness is what puts us beyond all other creatures and to be aware that you are aware is even more satisfying.

What if you were to take it to the next level and move beyond courage and face your transition with calm certainty and inner knowing? Life then becomes as easy and enjoyable as watching a good movie.